Local companies land on Inc. 5000 list

For the past five years, Inc. magazine and its companion website Inc.com have ranked 5,000 businesses from around the country that are growing the fastest and broadening the landscape of the privately owned business world. This year, three Columbia businesses held spots on the list; two of them reached Inc.’s top 500.
Entrepreneur Brent Beshore’s company AdVentures checked in at No. 28. Providing equity investment, marketing resources, strategic planning and operations management to companies across various platforms, AdVentures grew 6,534 percent in three years and made $6.8 million in revenue for 2010, up from $103,211 in 2007. AdVentures has founded seven companies, acquired two and exited from two.
Flat Branch Home Loans ranked No. 345. Created in 2005 to serve the needs of the local real estate community, Flat Branch Home Loans offers mortgage financing to homeowners looking to purchase a new house or refinance their current homes. Despite the depression in the real estate market during troubling financial times, the company continued to grow and expanded 974 percent over three years and earned $4.1 million in 2010. Flat Branch Home Loans employs 41 people in nine offices throughout central and eastern Missouri.
True Media, an independent, full-service media strategy and communications company, earned a spot at No. 2,108. Over three years, True Media grew 120 percent. Five years after it was founded, the company brought in $18 million in revenue in 2010, up from $8.2 million in 2007. The True Media team has more than 40 employees with additional offices in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and St. Louis.